Contextmapping

Monitoring & Research

While listening to others, the children got sensitised themselves. In other words, next to gathering more data, ‘super-sources’ are created when children become co-researchers.

Fenne van Doorn

For products and services to fit in with their users’ lives, designers need to understand those lives as well as they understand the technology that goes into the products. This ‘context of use’ contains the user’s needs and preferences, his or her abilities and limitations, everyday routines and practices.

Part of this context is ‘above water’: people can tell about it, or it can be observed. But another part lies ‘below water’: tacit knowledge, and latent needs. Especially the latter are important, as they come into play in the future that we are designing.

Contextmapping is a way to involve users as ‘experts of their experience’ in design processes. With techniques like workbooks, probes, and generative sessions, participants are facilitated to observe and reflect on the situation of use, and insights are developed that further drive the design.

PhD researcher Fenne van Doorn conducted contextmapping in the different FieldLabs. The outcomes of these studies were used by the companies that participated in the ProFit Innovation competition.

ProFit is funded by the European Union, under the Interreg IVB North West Europe programme.